Review of the helminths parasitic in rare aquatic birds in ukraine

Abstract

Helminth fauna of aquatic birds, in general, is well-studied on the territory of Ukraine. However, despite the fact that the data on the helminths of rare aquatic birds are dispersed in numerous faunistic publications, there are no separate reports on this particular group of hosts. The present survey generalizes all available information on the helminths parasitic in rare aquatic birds in Ukraine based on the collection material stored in the Institute of Zoology of NAS of Ukraine and the data from the literature. In Ukraine, the data on helminths diversity is available for 32 species of rare aquatic birds. The diversity is consisting of 295 species including 116 cestodes, 112 trematodes, 53 nematodes, and 14 acanthocephalans. Comparatively higher helminths species diversity was noted in the hosts from Charadriiformes and Anseriformes apparently due to the larger samples’ size. On the contrary, small samples of surveyed Falconiformes and Ciconiiformes resulted in a lower diversity of helminths. Most recorded helminth species are generalists infecting wide ranges of hosts. Only ten recorded species are known as species-specific parasites.